As Yet Untitled
by 24601lvr
Summary: I've always thought that Skittery was vastly under appreciated. So... I decided he should get the girl.
1. Chapter 1

I just couldn't help it; today there was a spring in my step, and I was smiling like an idiot. It may or may not have had something to do with the beautiful girl I knew I was going to see in approximately one hour. Racetrack approached me cautiously, hands held up in a defensive stance.

"Skitts, what's up with you? You're all diff'rent. It ain't natural." I sighed. It was just like Racetrack to razz me when I was actually in a good mood- for once.

"Nunya." Racetrack raised his eyebrows. Clearly he didn't understand.

"Nunya… what?" I smirked at him from underneath the brim of my hat.

"Nunya business." He scowled at me, moving back over towards Jack and slapping Mush for laughing.

"Hey, good one Skittery. Didja hear that, fellas? Race comes up to Skitts and says…" I tuned him out at this point. I mean, I didn't really know why he bothered. Everyone had heard anyway. But Kid Blink was hanging on his every word, as usual, so no harm done.

I stepped up to the window, feeling bold. Today was gonna be my day, I was sure of it.

"Twenty papes, Weasel." Weasel grimaced, but he was always grimacing, so I didn't let it get to me. I heard Racetrack come up behind me and try to finagle the price with Weasel, promising to bet on a specific horse at the tracks for him if his papes would be free. Weasel took him up on the offer, the gullible idiot.

"Seriously Skitts, what's gotten into you?" I looked over at Mush. He was a pretty good-natured fellow. The way he attached himself to Kid Blink was a little annoying, but the guy was trustworthy.

"Um… there's this girl…" Mush grinned widely, as did his one-eyed compatriot.

"Is that right? What's her name Skittery?" This time it was the blonde that spoke. I hesitated, but decided it was better to tell them now, rather than have them bug me about it forever.

"Madeleine. Madeleine Carter." The three eyes they had between them widened considerably.

"Jesus, Skitts. When you dream, you dream big." That, of course, was Kid Blink, tactful as ever. Mush elbowed him, and he mumbled a quick apology.

"S'fine Blink. I wouldn't believe me neither. But it's true." I walked away with my papes, blissfully unaware that those two idiots were following me. Once I reached my usual selling spot, I plunked down in the shade. Truly, I wasn't in a hurry to sell any papes. I heard soft footsteps behind me, and smiled a little to myself.

"Just couldn't stay away, could ya?" Then I heard it. The soft, tinkling laughter that made all the razzing and the rude comments from the guys worthwhile. I turned, and there she was.

"Hey there, Miss." She smiled. God help me, I loved that smile.

"How's the headline today?" I frowned. I couldn't lie to her.

"It's… well, it's crap. _Trolley Strike Drags on for Third Week._" I recited. She furrowed her brow, and then smiled suddenly.

"All right then. I'll take—" she looked to see my papes, and then, "twenty papers." I must have jumped visibly, because she snickered at me.

"Seriously Miss, you don't want—"

"I heard my father say something once. The customer is always right. I'm the customer, and I'd like twenty newspapers. And, at a penny per newspaper, that makes the total twenty cents." She reached into a beaded coin purse and pulled out the money, just handing it over to me like it was nothing. Twenty cents!

She just about snatched the papes away from me and I mean, hey, I wasn't going to argue. Then she did something uncharacteristically bold, even for her. She kissed me on the cheek. I looked at her, and I must've looked real stupid cause she did that adorable snickering thing again. She then pointed subtly.

"Consider it a tip. Have fun explaining that to your friends." I looked to where she was indicating, and saw Mush and Kid Blink staring back at me dumbly. Madeleine waved at them, then kissed me again and walked away. The guys ran over as soon as she'd left.

"Skitts! You—and she—you two—" Mush stammered. Kid Blink was a bit more coherent, but no less amusing.

"Holy shit! Skittery! Madeleine Carter? Holy shit!" At this point, I noticed that between them they had about six papes left.

"Hey, guys, y'want lunch? Tibby's. I'll buy?" I held out the day's earnings for them to see. Eyes wide, they both stared at me and nodded.

"So… she still pays you? She's your friggin' girl! Damn, Skitts. She must really like you. Dat's a pretty sweet deal." I smiled. I'd been admiring Madeleine from afar for about a month, but I'd never thought that anything would come of it.

As I sat in Tibby's, ignoring Blink and Mush's endless chatter, my usual pessimistic tendencies started to kick in, and I'm ashamed to say that I panicked. I realized that it would be stupid of me to read into this event that she had any amount of real affection for me. She was just trying to help a street urchin afford food. Nothing more. And... she had kissed me. But it must have been because she had seen Blink and Mush across the street and decided to have some fun at my expense. It must have been that reason, and absolutely nothing else. My angsty inner monologue was cut short when Blink's elbow made contact with my head.

"Holy crap, Skittery! Look, there's a fire!" Blink was pointing exuberantly across the street… towards the Carter townhouse. It was aflame.

Shit.


	2. Chapter 2

As I ran towards the burning house, I became acutely aware of the acrid smoke filling my lungs. The fire department was already on scene once I got there, and they were clearly struggling to contain the fire. I ran towards the nearest fireman, shouting and gesticulating wildly to get his attention. He turned to me, glaring impatiently.

"Is anyone inside?" His face turned grim at my question.

"The daughter is. We think there might be—" I didn't hear the rest of his statement because I had changed course. I shoved a couple of firemen out of the way, pushing through the doorway. I heard people shouting at me, probably telling me how crazy I was, but I didn't care. I pulled the collar of the shirt over my nose and mouth, but it didn't help much.

"Dear god, PLEASE! SOMEBODY HELP ME!" I was both relieved and terrified to hear that voice. It was good that she was all right… for now, but something was making her scream like that. And it didn't sound good. I decided it best to alert her to the fact that I was there.

"MADELEINE! I'M HERE TO HELP YOU! CAN YOU TELL ME WHERE YOU ARE?" I heard her voice whispering what sounded like a prayer of thanks. Following it, I reached the doorway to a room that looked like it may have once been lavishly adorned, but was now completely engulfed in smoke and flame.

One corner of the room remained untouched by fire, and Madeleine sat in that corner, sobbing quietly. It broke my heart to see her like that. I started fighting my way towards her.

"Madeleine?" She looked up at me. I saw a spark of recognition in her eyes. She tried her best to smirk at me while crying.

"Just couldn't stay away, could ya?" The effect of her statement was somehow ruined by the fact that she swayed and collapsed immediately after.

I yanked a sheet off the bed, using it as a fan to clear my path towards Madeleine. I wrapped it around her, picking her up and running with her back to the door. I heard a crash behind me and felt a sudden and excruciatingly hot wind. I turned to see that a beam had collapsed, meaning it would be impossible to re-enter the building.

A couple of firemen ran over to me, taking Madeleine out of my arms and laying her on a waiting stretcher. I almost objected, but it really wasn't my place. I was just some random stranger to her.

"SKITTERY! WHAT THE HELL WAS YOU THINKIN'?" As soon as I got clear of the building, I was hit from behind, almost tackled into a fierce hug. I looked to see who was the perpetrator of said gesture, and was surprised to see a short, cigar-toting Italian looking up at me with tears in his eyes.

"Blink and Mush came and said you went runnin' into da fire. We thought you was a goner." I patted him awkwardly on the back. Truly, I didn't know what to say. Here was a guy who'd relentlessly teased me for the past 9 years, and he was hugging me and crying cause he thought I was gonna die. It really made me think.

"Never knew you liked me, Race." He let go of me, wiping his eyes and glaring.

"Wouldn't waste all that time teasin' ya if I didn't, ya idjit!" He punched me lightly on the shoulder. I saw that the other guys were making their way over, and found myself engulfed in a huge group hug.

"Jesus, Skitts, that was amazing!"

"You coulda died, ya bum!"

"Didja save the girl?" I found that I was being deafened by questions, praise, and the occasional insult. I sought Cowboy's eyes, silently pleading with him to just let me get away from the noise, and he nodded, turning to the guys and saying, "Okay fellas. Skittery just ran outta a burning building, how would you feel?"

I thought about walking over to check if Madeleine was okay, but decided against it. I was about to begin the long walk back to the Lodging House, but another surge of questions hit me.

"Sir, why did you save Ms. Carter?"

"Excuse me, young man, do you mind if we ask you a couple of questions for the newspaper?" I heard soft footsteps behind me, and whirled quickly, hoping to see someone that would save me from the tirade.

It was Madeleine. Singed sheet still wrapped around her shoulders, she smiled shyly at me.

"Could I talk to you?" I was about to respond, but the shouted questions seemed to increase tenfold.

"Ms. Carter, are you and this boy involved?"

"Ms. Carter, are you injured?"

"Ms. Carter, who is he?" Madeleine glowered at the men, and they seemed to shrink before her. It would have been amusing if it weren't so terrifying.

"Don't you people have any sense of common decency? I just lost my mother! GO AWAY!" They shied away as though afraid she might hit them. I was suddenly struck by something she'd said: _I just lost my mother._ My stomach dropped as I thought of the words of the fireman that I'd ignored: _We think there might be—_

I was a terrible person. I'd saved the girl, and let her mother burn to death. I felt a sudden stinging at the corner of each eye, and decided to ignore it. I deserved to cry. Madeleine reached up to touch my face, brushing away the first tear before it fell.

"Ms. Carter, I'm so sorry. I should've gone back in there—" She smacked me across the face, hard. Well, I hadn't been expecting that.

"No, you shouldn't have. You risked your life to save mine. My mother was already gone. If you had gone back in, you would've died too." I was stricken by her lack of strong emotion when speaking of her mother's passing. All the guys who'd lost their mothers had seemed a lot sadder about it, and Racetrack still cried if his mother was mentioned, even though she'd died five years ago.

"Maybe…" she smiled sadly at me.

"Wondering why I'm not sadder?" I nodded. She really was perceptive.

"I didn't know her. It's not really something I want to talk about." I nodded again. She looked at me quizzically.

"You don't really say much, do you?" I shrugged, hoping to maybe get the night back on a playful tone to distract her from everything. She smiled, genuinely this time.

"I bet I could make you talk." She then proceeded to try everything from incessant inane questions to tickling.

Tickling worked.

"No—okay—Maddie—you win!" She stepped back, laughing, then turned serious.

"I'm a terrible person."

"What? No!" She held up a hand to silence me.

"I buy a paper from you every day. You've saved my life. You've spent about two hours cheering me up. And I don't know your name." I held out my hand.

"Skittery. Pleased to make your acquaintance." She smiled, taking my outstretched hand. Talk about a firm handshake.

"Skittery. I like it. So… the newsies' lifestyle… do you like it?" It was a tricky question.

"Do you want the truth, or d'ya want me to improve it a little?" She smirked at me.

"I'm a big girl. I can handle it."

"Sometimes it's hell. Most of the time I'm hungry. But I got family now, so I don't care so much." She kept on asking me questions about being a newsie, and I thought it was just casual curiosity. That is, until she asked me if I could help her masquerade as a boy and become a newsie.

Shit.


	3. Chapter 3

I pulled my cap off my head, shocked. Madeleine looked at me expectantly, awaiting an answer. I wasn't really sure to say. It wasn't every day that a girl came up to me and asked me help her to pretend to be a newsie.

"Uh." Her face fell.

"Oh, that's alright. I understand if you don't want to—"

"Well, I might hafta steal some clothes from Racetrack and Boots. I think they're the only ones tiny enough to fit ya." She grinned widely, hugging me.

"Thank you so much Skittery!" I smiled. It seemed that was the only expression I was capable of making around her. Her perpetual contentment was infectious.

"Okay… could you maybe meet me at Tibby's tomorrow? We got some stuff ta talk about." She nodded, and then hugged me once again.

"This means a lot, Skittery. I just can't handle being Madeleine Carter right now." It was a daring action, but I put my arm around her shoulder. She grinned up at me.

Daring, but _so_ worth it.

"Hey, so it's gettin' kinda late. Can I walk ya somewhere?"

"Well… my home just burned down. So, no. It's okay, Skitty. I'll be fine." I stopped abruptly when she said that, raising both eyebrows at her.

"Skitty? Really?" She giggled.

"It suits you." I tried very hard to glower at her, but it just wasn't working for me. Then I realized that we had arrived at my destination.

What a sneaky girl. She had walked _me_ home.

"Um… so… I should probably go. You sure you'll be alright?" She shoved me towards the door.

"I'm going to go find my father. Goodnight…" The moment was perfect. I could've just leaned over and… "Skitty."

The moment was dead.

"Seeya tomorrow Maddie." She kissed me on the cheek and I entered the Lodging House.

"Well, if it ain't our hero. Where ya been, Skitts? Thought you was gonna go back here. We been waitin' for ya." I groaned. It was just like Jack, watching out the window and teasing me.

"None of your stinkin' business." He just chuckled and patted me on the back.

"You did a good thing, Skittery. Maybe they'll even put you in the papes." He turned to go upstairs.

I was about to go to sleep, when he turned and said, "Skittery? Just make sure you don't pull stuff like that again. The fellas was real worried about ya. But she's real pretty. I'm happy for ya." He then left me alone with my thoughts.

How was I supposed to help Maddie pretend to be a boy? It wouldn't be easy, and I'd never especially liked lying. It was one of the reasons that I didn't normally sell as many papes as the rest of the guys.

Even as I thought about this, a picture came into my mind of the girl who'd come to buy a paper from me every day, even when the headlines were awful. Sometimes, she'd see that the headlines were terrible and pull a stunt like she had today, buying an inordinate amount of papes and always trying to make sure that I had money for food. I knew I had to help her.

I didn't get a good amount of sleep that night, tossing and turning all over the place. When morning came, I found myself feeling more tired than when I went to bed in the first place.

"C'mon Skittery. I don't care if you're a hero, ya still gotta wake up!" I groaned and rolled over.

"Go away, Kloppman." He chose to ignore the statement in favor of slapping me. I didn't understand why everyone was doing that all of a sudden. I sat up, rubbing my eyes and glaring at the old man. He returned the glare good-naturedly, patting me on the shoulder and moving on to wake up Race.

I went through my morning routine faster than usual, making sure I was one of the first ones at the Distribution Center. I found a couple of guys grumbling about a price jack-up, and my heart sank. Kid Blink, newly arrived on the scene, was loudly voicing his dissent about the situation. I couldn't help but do the same.

"This'll bust me. I'm barely makin' a living right now." Someone behind me patted me on the back, and the conversation continued. Racetrack made a couple of gambling metaphors that didn't really make any sense, and Jack started talking all this crazy stuff about going on strike.

I didn't understand the merit, personally. I mean, it was awful of Pulitzer to jack up the price of papes, but the fact of the matter was that we'd make even less money striking than we would just selling the overpriced papers.

I kept looking for a chance to slip away, but none appeared. I really had to warn Maddie about exactly what she was getting herself into.

Jack was still shouting about the strike, and most of the guys seemed like they were warming up to the idea, but I personally agreed with David. Refusing to sell papes didn't make us a union; it just made us a bunch of angry kids with no money. And they would just replace us as soon as we left. Weasel had been itching to get rid of most of us for years.

It was really crazy how Jack could get all the guys to agree to anything. It was a great quality in a leader, but I was worried about the way the guys were just blindly following him. Take Racetrack, for example. Two minutes earlier, the guy had been saying that a strike was a stupid idea, and now he was with Jack and the fellas, shouting about taking down Pulitzer.

Things were just beginning to calm down, so I decided to slip away. Jack was sitting on the steps of the World Building, assigning different boroughs for each of the guys to visit. It sounded like he really was serious about getting every newsie in New York on board with the strike.

I started walking toward Tibby's when Bumlets and Specs cornered me.

"Hey Skitts!"

"Hiya Skittery. Listen, we're goin' to the Bronx. Ya wanna come?" I sighed.

"I would fellas, but I'm runnin' late to meet—" Bumlets waved an arm dismissively.

"Yeah, Skittery, we heard all about your new girl. See ya when we get back." I waved goodbye to the guys and headed to Tibby's, where I found Maddie. She was sitting in the corner booth. She smiled when I entered, and gestured for me to sit down. When I did and we were face to face, I think she finally noticed my somewhat panicked expression.

"Maddie, there's somethin' you should know. We was at the D.O. today, and they jacked-up the papes' price. It made a lot of people mad, and we're goin' on strike now." I don't know what I was hoping to accomplish by telling her this. I think I was hoping that she'd finally realize what she was getting both of us into, and delay the plan or else forget it completely.

Maddie's eyes widened considerably.

"That's awful! I'm so sorry. As for the strike…" She looked up at me, grinning mischievously.

"I want in."

Triple shit.


End file.
